Spread the word!

We’ve all been there. Maybe it’s because you’re chatting with your in-laws who really don’t think you should be homeschooling, or maybe you’re chatting with another homeschooling mama who always “has it together”, and the dreaded question gets asked… “How’s homeschooling going?” It’s an innocent enough question, but it sinks your day faster than the Titanic.

“Fine” you may answer, or even “we love it” if you’re brave, but you’re hoping they don’t ask for details.. We’ve had quite an eventful homeschooling year at this house. Since we started the year, Chris has started a new job that completely flipped his schedule from being home all day to working all day, I’ve started a ton of work at home jobs that are slowly turning into real, regular income, A-Man started therapy which turned into two therapy sessions a week every week, and Baby M started therapy which quickly turned into three sessions a week for him every week. Needless to say, we haven’t had a picture perfect year, but I’m letting go.

Letting Go of the Homeschooling Guilt

Evaluate

This can be the hardest part for me, but it’s really important. Find out where you are. If you’re only half way through your phonics curriculum, that’s fine, but you need to know where you stand. Beyond figuring out how much of your curriculum you didn’t do, take some time to reflect on the non-book ways you’ve both grown. Mr. C is only 5, so he is learning new life skills every day. While most wouldn’t count learning to buckle his brother “homeschooling”, I’m certainly counting it as a life skill that he’s learned this year (plus it helps keep this mama from climbing in the back of the van every single time). Has your kid learned to cook something or added some new chores? Those count too. :)

Get Some Perspective

If you went to public school like I did, you’ll know that there wasn’t a single year that we finished every lesson in the books. Teachers jumped around, skipped some lessons when the class needed to work through some behavior issues, etc. We do the same thing as homeschooling parents. Sometimes it’s more important to learn to play nice with our brother than it is to practice our multiplication tables. It’s okay, teachers do it too. Sometimes we finish the year and there’s still a few weeks of lessons left. Don’t sweat it, they’ll review it all the first few months of the next grade’s books.

Just Let Go

Okay, I lied. This is the hardest part for me. We, as homeschooling parents, just need to let go. Suzie Homeschooler whose kids learned four languages this year is lovely, but we don’t need to be her. We were given our children for a purpose, and we were called to homeschool for a purpose. While we should always strive to be the best parents that we can be, it’s unrealistic to believe that we’ll be perfect all the time. Have some grace, pray often, and when your mother-in-law asks what you did this year, say confidently that you learned everything you were supposed to learn.

Have you been wrapped up in homeschooling guilt?

About Kaylene

Kaylene George is an autistic self-advocate, author, and mother of five, including one autistic child. She realized her own autism as an adult shortly after her son received his initial diagnosis. Suddenly the parts of her that seemed so “weird” to society had an answer. Since then, Kaylene has passionately shared about her experiences with autism from both sides of the great divide between parents and autistic self-advocates on AutisticMama.com.